When Misha Bliner arrived in the United States in 1974 with his wife, Lena, and son, Ilya, he was recognized in Crown Heights for his role in organizing smuggling operations that helped people leave the Soviet Union. He had been arrested for such activities in 1950.
Sara Deitsch met Mr. Bliner during a 1972 visit to the Soviet Union and suggested that if his family came to America, Dovid would offer him employment. After their arrival, Mr. Bliner approached Dovid at his office.
Rather than simply hire him, the businessman proposed a different arrangement. "I would be very happy. But a man like you should not work for anybody," Dovid said, offering instead to help him establish his own business.
Mr. Bliner secured a warehouse in Brooklyn, and Dovid supplied him with second-quality rolls to sell. He then exported most of the merchandise to Africa. Mr. Bliner initially believed Dovid had created this opportunity specifically for him, but later learned through Meir Malka that Dovid had previously purchased such rolls for his own company. "I am out of this business," Dovid told Mr. Malka, "and now it is Misha's line."
The two men developed a close relationship, with the Bliners regularly visiting the Deitsches in New Haven and vacationing together in Florida. "They understood each other," Rochke Sandman said, "comprehending the similarity of the lives they both had lived, fraught with fear and danger."
At religious gatherings, the two would sit together, and at 770 they became inseparable companions. "Dovid Deitsch was one of the most impactful people on our life," Ilya Bliner said. "He never treated [my father] as a lesser, but as an equal."